Death of Internet Explorer

Death of Internet Explorer

Microsoft's final and feeble attempt at rescuing their archaic Internet Explorer product has already been declared a failure. By the time of Internet Explorer 10's birth two weeks ago, it was was pronounced dead on the scene.

A miscarriage. As if Internet Explorer wasn't already buried, right? From Mozilla Firefox to Google Chrome, or even Safari, Internet Explorer has been rendered obsolete.

That is what happens when any company – especially tech – attempts to get by just through its brand name. Microsoft was the first to commercialize a web browser on a large scale, and therefore, they felt that the Internet Explorer name would last through the ages. They did little to evolve the product or even alter it in any way to fit with current tech and web browsing trends.

In fact, Microsoft fought change. And when anything defies change on a cultural or technological level (both in this case), doom is eminent. The only even half-ass attempt by Microsoft to try to make IE10 relevant was an expensive, full-scale commercial broadcast all throughout the country. And to be completely honest, the commercial wasn't bad. But, it takes more than that to successfully launch a new tech product, especially one as infected as Internet Explorer.

So where is Microsoft's Internet Explorer at now exactly? Several big name entrepreneurs and startups are banning IE10 from their platform all together, as a sort of psuedo-defiance of Microsoft's insulting plans for the tech community. In fact, some websites have actually even taken it so far as to charge a tax on customers who do use IE10.

Kogan.com, one of the largest e-commerce sites in the world is the Amazon.com to the rest of the world: from Australia to Europe. Kogan.com will soon penetrate the U.S. market, as well. The founder behind Kogan announced on his blog that his website will be charging an extra a 6.8% tax on all products purchased by users on IE10.

It may seem like an extreme response, but Kogan's actions do make sense. It costs his company money everyday just to ensure that his platform can support Internet Explorer. IE10 is different than all other contemporary browsers in the sense that it is so old and outdated that any website that wants to support it has to go out of their way, paying tons of dollars daily, just to make sure their website works on the faulty web browser.

It's not only costing us a huge amount, it's affecting any business with an online presence, and costing the Internet economy millions.”

Kogan.com has been able to keep the prices of products so low on their site because all of the company's operations are streamlined and maximally efficient. The money the company saves in operations is then carried over to their actual products. When Kogan has to pay a shit ton more just for IE10, that business model goes out the window.

A lot of startups have given Kogan their support. Some have even matched Kogan's move. By the time of IE10's full scale release, the whole tech and startup community will reject it on day 1. This will not only be embarrassing for Microsoft, but it will also lose them a lot of money.

Elite.

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